Keith Urban Felt 'Euphoric' When He Won Entertainer of the Year at CMA Awards: Watch

Keith Urban caught up with Billboard’s Taylor Weatherby backstage at the 2018 CMA Awards on Wednesday night (Nov. 14), where he reflected on winning Entertainer of the Year and chatted about his current tour in support of Graffiti U.

Asked how he felt when he heard his name announced as the winner of the Entertainer of the Year prize, Urban tells Billboard he was simply “euphoric,” adding that it was “just a bit existential for a moment.”

“Making the Graffiti U album was an immense amount of work,” he says, “And so to see it connect the way it's connected with the album nomination tonight and then this… which what I really feel is just as much the tour, is ecstatic because I love playing live. I love it passionately.”

Urban, who has been playing 28-song sets on his tour, also explained how he’s able to keep his energy going during such long shows. The answer is pretty simple: he feeds off his fans’ energy.

“We can just play for hours,” he adds. “Plus, I came up playing in the clubs. I spent all my youth playing four, five nights a week, four hours a night, schlepping all my gear in and out of the clubs, so it's all in there, all that training's in there.”

Urban also chatted about his song "Never Coming Down," which he performed at the event. “That song really captures the spirit of what our concerts are like,” he explains, “Which is celebratory and inclusive and one of the things I love most about getting to tour is bringing everybody together, all walks of life all, every kind of difference in people is all just evaporated at our concerts, and everybody just becomes one, it's amazing.”

You can watch the full video interview with Keith Urban above, and check out a clip of his performance below.